With all new footage of Gerry Lopez and a bonus feature at the end, Makai Side: A History of Hawaiian Surfing Documentary is back! 5,000 views and going strong.

Mahalos for watching. Please share!

Note:

This video cannot be monetized as it does not have the required 1,000 subscribers.

Note about Copyrights:

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

Reviews:

Pacific Longboarder:

“Talk about complete.”

The Inertia Magazine:

“This one takes a deep dive into surfing history.”

“Niiiiice Philip! Not what is usually churned out there for us all.”

– Kimi Kann

“This movie is the surf bible. This is original spirit. Great mahalo for sharing.”

– Yone Cauden-Vaiagina:

Now Live on Youtube, Makai Side: A History of Hawaiian Surfing

Hawaiian Surfing history from the beginning; covering depictions of 18th century surfers by British artists aboard trade ships through Duke Kahanamoku, highlights of the 20s and 30s, Makaha and Hawaiian Culture in the 40s, the accomplishments by the heavies in the 50s and 60s, the innovations of the 70s, and the power surfers of the eighties.

Like this:

Hawaiian Surfing history from the beginning; Covering depictions of 18th century surfers by British artists aboard trade ships through Duke Kahanamoku, highlights of the 20s and 30s, Makaha and Hawaiian Culture in the 40s, the accomplishments by the heavies in the 50s and 60s, the innovations of the 70s, and the power surfers of the eighties.

Share this:

Like this:

The story of how Hawai’i found its place on the map in the mid-Pacific is a tale filled with discovery, adventure and conflict.

When European explorers first entered the Pacific, they found that the great ocean had already been mastered by navigators whose nautical skills rivaled their own: the Polynesians. The presence of the Polynesians throughout the ocean’s isles was testimony to an extraordinary seafaring heritage.

Starting from islands near Southeast Asia around 2500 BC the early peoples of the Pacific had island-hopped until they reached the Tonga and Samoa groups about a thousand years later.

When driven from an island by overpopulation, famine or defeat in battle, Polynesians would set off to colonize new lands: sometimes sending exploring parties ahead, sometimes simply trusting fate and their own exceptional abilities to lead them to their destination. They were not always rewarded; many expeditions perished at sea. Such long voyages were planned months in advance.

Even islanders forced into exile by conquering neighbors were given time to build massive double-hulled canoes that could carry scores of people on journeys of eight weeks or more.

Building a voyaging canoe was a community project, supervised by a master craftsman of near-priestly status. Workers shaped large tree trunks into rough hulls and then, with primitive tools of stone, shell and bone, constructed a sturdy sailing vessel measuring 100ft and weighing 10 tons that could cover 150 miles in a day.

The canoes were guided to their destinations by an elite fraternity of navigators, taught from childhood to read nautical information in a host of natural signs. They knew the year – round positions of more than 150 stars and had a vast knowledge of ocean currents, prevailing winds and the habits of migratory birds. When nearing islands beyond the horizon, they could actually smell land, feel echoes in the water from swells bouncing off atolls and see the greenish reflection of forests on the underside of clouds.

Traffic on Maui has reached its maximum. The roads to Lahaina in either direction are backed up and congested everyday.

The stretch of Hana Highway in Paia is regularly backed up at least a quarter to a half mile in either direction and oftentimes is such for as much as a mile.

Dairy Road in Kahului is an everyday nightmare.

Why?

Unchecked Tourism

With thousands of tourists (7,500 per day and 2.75 million per year, the equivalent of adding a second Pukalani or Makawao every day)arriving daily, both at the airport and both major harbors (with mega cruise ships that appear as city skyscrapers laid on one side), Maui is subjected to the seemingly endless hordes in an ebb and flow that rivals our “King Tides” and threaten to wash our beaches away and tear at our roadways that are overused and under cared for.

Local people are now forced to accept an additional 30-45 minute (sometimes an hour) drive times. This said, tourists themselves are beginning to voice their own concerns, sometimes calmly, but oftentimes relying on the belligerence of their car horns then finally angry expletives that scream “this is my goddamn vacation” and/or simple frustration mostly based on the amount of money they’ve spent to visit “paradise,” only to find themselves stuck in Los Angeles-style traffic. I’ve often barely escaped injury when walking in a crosswalk. The car at fault is most often a rented Ford Mustang, a rented Jeep, or a rented Chevy Suburban.

After being voted “Best Island To Visit” by Conde Nast magazine, Maui has found itself a helpless victim, overrun, both environmentally and spiritually. Maui is far beyond handling the number of people it’s been subjected to. While I personally love Maui, I’m not sure why it would be considered as such by any magazine. This once peaceful, laid-back Outer Island is becoming little more than a stressed suburb of Los Angeles.

Honolulu itself is literally the LA of the Pacific. And not in any good way. The Spirit of Aloha there and all over The Islands has been tragically eroded to the point that its essence is mostly gone, rendering the spirit of The Islands to be not much different than the spirit of any mediocre town in the US.

When I first came to Maui in 1986 a dog could fall asleep on Baldwin Avenue in Paia. Paia was a sleepy little town, made up of local people who worked the sugar fields and mills, small business owners that catered to the local population, or “living on a shoestring” surfers and windsurfers who contributed heartily to the Aloha Spirit, born of their love of the ocean and the beauty of Hawaiian Culture. For the cynics who would like to dispose of me as a “newbie,” my time here has always been focused on contributing to, preserving, and most importantly, having respect for the host culture.

Rent was still reasonable in the 80s, the level of tourism was manageable, and they, the locals, existed, for the most part, side-by-side, with some semblance of harmony. There was only one shop in Paia focused that focused on tourism and “Picnics,” as it was known, did little more than supply travelers with a boxed lunch for their trip to Hana. Lahaina, similar to Paia has lost much of its historical quaintness becoming a row of shops, mostly driven by a desire to extract as many tourist dollars as is possible.

The Facts

To those who believe tourism has been good to the Hawaiians, the state Department of Business, Economic Development recently released a report which states: “Of the five largest racial groups in Hawaii… Native Hawaiians have the highest poverty rates for individuals and families, with 6,610 families (12.6% of families) and 45,420 individuals (15.5% of the population) living below the poverty level.” Further it says, “Let me reiterate: Native Hawaiians, the first people to live in Hawaii, currently “have the highest poverty rates for individuals and families” in Hawaii. This is a tragedy and a travesty that those of us in Hawaii who aren’t Native Hawaiian ignore at our peril.”

All of this said, BIG changes need to be made to salvage and perhaps restore Maui to its former glory.

(Firstly, it’s not more and wider roads).

1. Tourism quotas (Other island destinations such as Tavarua in Fiji have managed this successfully. One good step was when the number of downhill bike companies were limited on Haleakala

2. Much greater protections for the ocean and the ‘aina

3. Strong efforts to improve the quality of life for local people (many of whom have lived here for generations), who are slowly being priced out of the housing market

4. Illegal vacation rentals need to be rooted out and shutdown. Their numbers should also be held to a quota so as to stop artificially inflating the median rent. The latest study says one in seven houses on Maui are vacation rentals.

5. The return of ancestral lands to Native Hawaiians. My own friend holds title to all of the land from Kaanapali north to Honokahau with no real ability to exercise her ownership rights in any substantial way

The misconception that the Lahaina Bypass will any way alleviate one or two of these problems is just that, a misguided misconception. With the current rate of construction in and around Lahaina, the bypass will serve to do no more than relocate the major choke point from one stretch of the road to another.

Traffic on Maui has reached its maximum. The roads to Lahaina in either direction are backed up and congested everyday.

The stretch of Hana Highway in Paia is regularly backed up at least a quarter to a half mile in either direction and oftentimes is such for as much as a mile.

Dairy Road in Kahului is an everyday nightmare.

Why?

Unchecked Tourism

With thousands of tourists (7,500 per day and 2.75 million per year, the equivalent of adding a second Pukalani or Makawao every day) arriving daily, both at the airport and both major harbors (with mega cruise ships that appear as city skyscrapers laid on one side), Maui is subjected to the seemingly endless hordes in an ebb and flow that rivals our “King Tides” and threaten to wash our beaches away and tear at our roadways that are overused and under cared for.

Local people are now forced to accept an additional 30-45 minute (sometimes an hour) drive times. This said, tourists themselves are beginning to voice their own concerns, sometimes calmly, but oftentimes relying on the belligerence of their car horns then finally angry expletives that scream “this is my goddamn vacation” and/or simple frustration mostly based on the amount of money they’ve spent to visit “paradise,” only to find themselves stuck in Los Angeles-style traffic. I’ve often barely escaped injury when walking in a crosswalk. The car at fault is most often a rented Ford Mustang, a rented Jeep, or a rented Chevy Suburban.

After being voted “Best Island To Visit” by Conde Nast magazine, Maui has found itself a helpless victim, overrun, both environmentally and spiritually. Maui is far beyond handling the number of people it’s been subjected to. While I personally love Maui, I’m not sure why it would be considered as such by any magazine. This once peaceful, laid-back Outer Island is becoming little more than a stressed suburb of Los Angeles.

Honolulu itself is literally the LA of the Pacific. And not in any good way. The Spirit of Aloha there and all over The Islands has been tragically eroded to the point that its essence is mostly gone, rendering the spirit of The Islands to be not much different than the spirit of any mediocre town in the US.

When I first came to Maui in 1986 a dog could fall asleep on Baldwin Avenue in Paia. Paia was a sleepy little town, made up of local people who worked the sugar fields and mills, small business owners that catered to the local population, or “living on a shoestring” surfers and windsurfers who contributed heartily to the Aloha Spirit, born of their love of the ocean and the beauty of Hawaiian Culture. For the cynics who would like to dispose of me as a “newbie,” my time here has always been focused on contributing to, preserving, and most importantly, having respect for the host culture.

Rent was still reasonable in the 80s, the level of tourism was manageable, and they, the locals, existed, for the most part, side-by-side, with some semblance of harmony. There was only one shop in Paia focused that focused on tourism and “Picnics,” as it was known, did little more than supply travelers with a boxed lunch for their trip to Hana. Lahaina, similar to Paia has lost much of its historical quaintness becoming a row of shops, mostly driven by a desire to extract as many tourist dollars as is possible.

The Facts

To those who believe tourism has been good to the Hawaiians, the state Department of Business, Economic Development recently released a report which states: “Of the five largest racial groups in Hawaii… Native Hawaiians have the highest poverty rates for individuals and families, with 6,610 families (12.6% of families) and 45,420 individuals (15.5% of the population) living below the poverty level.” Further it says, “Let me reiterate: Native Hawaiians, the first people to live in Hawaii, currently “have the highest poverty rates for individuals and families” in Hawaii. This is a tragedy and a travesty that those of us in Hawaii who aren’t Native Hawaiian ignore at our peril.”

All of this said, BIG changes need to be made to salvage and perhaps restore Maui to its former glory.

(Firstly, it’s not more and wider roads).

1. Tourism quotas (Other island destinations such as Tavarua in Fiji have managed this successfully. One good step was when the number of downhill bike companies were limited on Haleakala

2. Much greater protections for the ocean and the ‘aina

3. Strong efforts to improve the quality of life for local people (many of whom have lived here for generations), who are slowly being priced out of the housing market

4. Illegal vacation rentals need to be rooted out and shutdown. Their numbers should also be held to a quota so as to stop artificially inflating the median rent. The latest study says one in seven houses on Maui are vacation rentals.

5. The return of ancestral lands to Native Hawaiians. My own friend holds title to all of the land from Kaanapali north to Honokahau with no real ability to exercise her ownership rights in any substantial way

The misconception that the Lahaina Bypass will any way alleviate one or two of these problems is just that, a misguided misconception. With the current rate of construction in and around Lahaina, the bypass will serve to do no more than relocate the major choke point from one stretch of the road to another.

Share this:

Like this:

There’s a reason Maui sees more shark attacks than any other Hawaiian island, according to the results of a new study: It’s the large and protected shallow ocean shelf that acts as a magnet for tiger sharks near and far.

In addition, the most visited waters by tiger sharks around Maui include some of the most popular beaches and ocean recreation sites, the study said.

It’s that combination of factors that point to why Maui has more shark bites, according to the study, although researchers cannot entirely rule out a higher number of ocean recreation activities on Maui as the primary cause of the recent bump in the number of shark attacks.

MAUI’S THE PLACE TO BE

More tiger sharks visit Maui because of its large protected ocean shelf,

which harbors a wide variety of tiger shark prey and serves as an ideal

habitat for mating and pupping. Many more sharks were detected

around Maui than Oahu by acoustic monitoring.

“Over the past 20 years, Maui has had almost double the number of shark bites of any other island, even though all of the larger islands have thousands of people going into the ocean every day,” University of Hawaii researcher Carl Meyer said at a news conference Thursday.

Meyer’s UH Institute of Marine Biology research team used a combination of satellite and acoustic tracking to monitor the movement of 41 tiger sharks around Maui and Oahu for up to two years.

The $186,000 study was commissioned by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources following a spike in shark bites off Maui in 2012 and 2013.

Meyer, principal investigator of the study, said the ocean around Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe has more preferred tiger shark habitat than all the other main Hawaiian Islands combined.

The vast shelf area of reef habitat around Maui extends offshore to depths of 600 feet and is home to a wide variety of tiger shark prey, he said. The shelf area is also ideal for tiger shark mating and pupping.

The study’s tracking data indicate that individual sharks visit Maui more often than they visit the other islands — about 2.5 times per month compared with 1.5 times a month for Oahu and about once every two months for Kauai and Hawaii island.

What’s more, many more sharks were detected per day in Maui waters than in Oahu waters, according to the study’s acoustic tracking. Off southwestern Maui, tiger sharks were present more than 80 percent of the time.

“That equates to a near daily presence of these large tiger sharks at ocean recreation sites,” Meyer said. “But it’s important to remember that even though there is nearly a daily presence of these animals, there are thousands of people going into the water around Maui, yet shark bites remain rare events.”

The data suggest that tiger sharks generally avoid interactions with people, he said.

The study also found that tiger sharks visit near-shore waters at all times of the day and night, which would suggest there’s no greater chance of getting attacked at sunset or during the night.

The pattern of shark bites, Meyer said, matches human behavior, with 70 percent of the bites occurring between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Maui-tagged sharks did not visit Oahu, Meyer said, but Oahu-tagged sharks visited Maui waters in greater numbers during the core winter months, which is the peak mating season. Previous studies indicated that tiger sharks from even the farthest regions of the island chain also gravitate to Maui for reproductive reasons.

Meyer rejected measures such as shark culling, shark nets and real-time monitoring warning systems as useless and unnecessary. Previous shark hunts in Hawaii didn’t reduce shark attacks, he said, and only resulted in new sharks filling the void.

Bruce Anderson, administrator of DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources, said the department commissioned the study out of concern for public safety during a time when little information was known about why the sharks were behaving the way they were.

“The results reinforce the direction we’ve been taking for quite a while,” Anderson said. We’ve been recommending preventive measures rather than culling sharks.”

Preventive measures, he said, include staying out of the water if it’s murky, swimming with others and staying close to shore.

Anderson said changing ocean behaviors have contributed to the increase in shark bites over the last 20 years. More people are kayaking, blue-water spearfishing, stand-up paddling and swimming offshore, he said.

“Swimming in the ocean is what amounts to swimming in a wilderness-type environment,” Anderson said. “Sharks are part of this environment. We have to accept that they are there and take precautions to avoid encounters that are going to occur from time to time.”

Meyer said the reasons for the 2012-14 spike in shark attacks around Maui remain unclear. There was only one unprovoked shark attack off Maui in 2015, he said, yet there was no change in shark behavior and no shift in human behavior.

These spikes occur all over the world and are most likely due to chance, he said.

Historically, Hawaii averaged between two and three shark attacks a year going back to the 1980s. During the past two decades, the annual average edged up to between three and four shark attacks.

Share this:

Like this:

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.
The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, “We didn’t have this ‘green thing’ back in my earlier days.”

The older lady said that she was right — our generation didn’t have the “green thing” in its day. The older lady went on to explain:

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But, too bad we didn’t do the “green thing” back then.

We walked up stairs because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn’t have the “green thing” in our day.

Back then we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day.

Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blade in a r azor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn’t have the “green thing” back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family’s $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the”green thing.” We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the “green thing” back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.

We don’t like being old in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to piss us off… Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can’t make change without the cash register telling them how much.